Caravan of conscience: Italian rockers deliver humanitarian aid to the Donbass

Banda Bassotti is one of Italy’s best known revolutionary rock bands, holding concerts all around the world. Since 2017, the band has organized an annual “Anti-Fascist Caravan” to deliver humanitarian aid to Donbass residents in need, despite obvious pressure from Western governments.

This year’s caravan attracted volunteers from Spain, Italy, Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia and Nicaragua, and provided essential items to hospitals and orphanages.

“Banda Bassotti are friends, comrades and a true example not just for those in Europe and Donbass, but also for the people around the world, because the humanity as a whole is one big family, and they [musicians] fight for a better world for all,” reports Sputnik correspondent Russell Bentley (@TXDPR).

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🪖 The sabotage failed: Russian troops launched air and artillery strikes against Ukrainian sabotage groups trying to sneak up on the Russian border.

Neither forests nor abandoned buildings helped Ukrainian saboteurs hide from Russian fire.

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💥Russian FPV drone operators of the Battlegroup Tsentr wiped out Ukrainian armour and stronghold near Avdeyevka

Reconnaissance confirmed the target engagement.

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16 US states file lawsuit against Biden over ban on LNG exports

Texas and 15 other US states have have filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration, saying the ban on exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) goes against the Natural Gas Act and Department of Energy policy, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement.

"Texas, along with Louisiana and fourteen other states, has filed a lawsuit to void the unconstitutional LNG export ban, which ignores the Natural Gas Act’s presumption in favor of exports, decades of Department of Energy policy, and State and private reliance on exports," Paxton said.

According to the lawsuit, the states that have filed for the lawsuit are Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

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US national security adviser Jake Sullivan left Kiev with empty promises – just like 13 months ago

During his surprise visit to Kiev on Wednesday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan urged Ukrainians to “believe in the US,” promising that an aid bill - still stuck in the US House of Representatives - would be unblocked.

Experienced journalists, however, noted that Sullivan almost word for word repeated his statements from 13 months ago when he visited Kiev alongside US President Joe Biden. According to CNN, Sullivan then said that the US House would “eventually” approve additional funding to Ukraine.

However, the bill on US military aid to Ukraine and Israel, which would release some $60 billion and $14 billion in assistance, respectively, remains stalled in the Congress due to growing suspicions among Republicans of the Kiev regime's ties to corruption and ineffective use of American aid. Additionally, Republicans have sought to tie allocated funding to a more active fight against illegal migration on the border with Mexico.

Asia Times and Defense News ironized about the need for Sullivan to satisfy too many conflicting money appetites. Elsewhere, the US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) is requesting to bump up its outlined funding by $11 billion more than the White House’s fiscal 2025 defense budget request.

The US military has designated the additional expenses to account for a secret space program and unmanned underwater vehicles as it seeks to fight the perceived “Chinese threat” after the Russian one.

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The International Monetary Fund approved another nearly $880m loan tranche to Ukraine

Earlier, Sputnik wrote that in 2024 Ukraine's national debt could reach 110% of GDP, while in 2023, Ukrainian media wrote that the Ukrainian authorities estimated that the share of public external debt would amount to 80% of the total volume.

Ukraine's national debt per capita has quadrupled over the past nine years to $5.5 thousand, and may reach at least $6.9 thousand in the coming years, Sputnik calculated in 2023.

🎯 Russian paratroopers of the Battlegroup Dnepr destroyed a Ukrainian observation post and infantry in Zaporozhye region.

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Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that raising tariffs on Russian and Belarusian grain would only exacerbate the food situation in the world while commenting on the proposal of European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen.

"Is this her way of worrying about starving countries? How will such measures contribute to world food security? They will not. They will only exacerbate the world food situation already brought to absurdity by the West," Zakharova wrote on Telegram.

On Thursday, von der Leyen said following the EU summit that she proposed to increase tariffs on Russian and Belarusian grain and seed oil products to avoid destabilizing the EU market.

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US ‘grand plan’ is to ‘reoccupy’ Africa

The US’ “grand plan” with its drone base in Niger is to “reoccupy” Africa with “its vassal friends” like France, Koffi Kouakou, an African analyst and senior research fellow at the Center for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg told Sputnik’s Fault Lines.

“The US ain't going to leave easily. The US is not going to cut and run because there's this big ego at play [in] geopolitics [and] geoeconomics, but also hegemony,” Kouakou explained. “Those who haven’t been paying attention should pay attention.”

“The key issue is [the] US’s grand plan to get [Africa] back, with its vassal friends to reoccupy this place.”

“[The US] invested a huge amount of money in this place. They’re not going to leave easily. However, where the Nigeriens have a point is ‘You’ve been there since 2012, but terrorism is still there. What have you done for us to deal with terrorism, if terrorism was really the reason for your presence on our occupied ground?’” Koukaou said, adding that Mali has done “a fabulous job” with the Africa Corps in combating terrorism.

“There was no terrorism in the area until 2011 when the US and, now let’s say NATO, bombed Libya to smithereens and destroyed it. Now this whole place is running amok with terrorist groups,” noted Koukaou.

“I think Niger is now winning the information war,” Kouakou concluded, “but this is exactly our concern because the US is going to retaliate one way or another.”

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💥 Russian artillerymen of Battlegroup Youg destroyed enemy strongholds in the Donetsk region

The crew of the 152-mm Giatsint-B gun destroyed four dugouts and strongholds, along with Ukrainian servicemen unsuccessfully trying to shelter from artillery fire. Luck turned away from 30 Ukrainian soldiers—they were all either killed or wounded.

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Ukraine talks haven't started because of US threats to Zelensky, Seymour Hersh says

Negotiations on resolving the conflict in Ukraine could have started months ago, but US authorities threatened Ukrainian President Zelensky with withdrawal of non-military funding, US journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh said in an article on Substack.

"We were on the verge of a reasonable negotiation several months ago before Putin's re-election and Zelensky's military degradation. The US leaders got wind of the possibility and gave Zelensky the ultimatum-'No negotiations or settlement or we won't support your government with the $45 billion in non-military funds [that Ukraine is now receiving annually],'" the source told the journalist.

According to Hersh's information, US intelligence community recognises that "Ukraine has little chance of winning..."

Hersh's interlocutor also added that US President Joe Biden has staked on confronting the "Russian threat to NATO" and will not change his course under any circumstances, while the end is inevitable.

"There is no road to victory for Ukraine, and it will end with Putin as an historical icon in Russia...," the source concluded.

In autumn 2022, Zelensky signed a decree according to which his country will not negotiate with Russia as long as it is led by Vladimir Putin. Russia, for its part, has repeatedly noted its readiness to discuss the settlement of the conflict through diplomatic means.

As Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasised, the Russia does not see any prerequisites for a peaceful transition of the situation, and sovereignty over the new Russian regions and Crimea is not up for discussion.

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There is ‘no way’ for EU to replace US funding Ukraine without tanking euro, economy

The EU has been looking for alternative methods to fund Ukraine with US aid stalled in congress, including using interest from frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine. However, they will be unable to make up the huge amount the US provides without stealing all of Russia’s frozen assets, which would tank the Euro, or by devoting far more of their national budgets to Ukraine, which would tank the economy, Mark Sleboda, an international relations and security expert told Sputnik’s Fault Lines.

“The only way that Europe could possibly make up [for the lack of US aid to Ukraine] that is needed to support the Kiev regime is by stealing all of Russia’s frozen assets, possibly tanking the Euro and crashing the EU’s reputation as a reputable place to store currency reserves for transactions,” Mark Sleboda said. “And they are very loath to do that, particularly Belgium and Switzerland, where most of Russia’s frozen assets, some $200 billion worth, is stored.”

Outside of that “nuclear option” Sleboda said that the only other path for Europe would put “a much more severe drain” on their national budgets and economies.

“Unless all Europeans are willing to forgo their social benefits and other perks of life in the EU that they have become accustomed to, to prop up this regime in Kiev, there’s simply no way,” Sleboda explained, noting that the recent €50 billion aid package approved by the EU is spread out over four years.

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Over 60% of Ukrainians believe corruption growing - poll

More than 60% of Ukrainians believe that corruption in the country is on the rise, a new survey conducted by the Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has shown.

"There is a deterioration in the indicators for assessing the dynamics of corruption levels in 2023. The increase in the level of corruption is noted by 61.2% of the population (more than twice as much as in 2022 (29.2%)) and 46.3% of businesspeople, which is almost three times higher than in 2022 (16%)," the survey showed.

The survey polled 2,488 individuals in face-to-face interviews and 1,208 representatives of legal entities and enterprises by telephone, with the margin of error not exceeding 2% and 3%, respectively.

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📹 Russian FPV drone operators destroyed an enemy vehicle in the DPR, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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The world sees Gaza as ‘US genocide’ not just Israel’s

Americans do not understand how badly the US’ reputation has been damaged across the world, which sees Gaza as “a US genocide” and “not just an Israeli genocide,” Mohammad Marandi, a professor of English literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran told Sputnik’s The Critical Hour.

“It’s revealing the reality of [the US] empire in a way that not even [author of ‘A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn] could do because it’s being done in front of our eyes, it’s being done in front of a global audience. We’ve never seen such a thing before,” Marandi said, adding that he suspects that is why the US is attempting to ban TikTok.

“The US has lost credibility across the world. I don’t think many Americans understand how bad this has become for the United States. People across the world see this as a US genocide, it’s not just an Israeli genocide.”

“I believe that the Israelis have made a fatal mistake and that what they’ve done in Gaza will be the beginning of the end of the Zionist project,” he added. “It’s been carrying out the genocide for almost six months in front of the world and it has demolished the facade that the regime had created for itself… about it being a democracy… All that is gone now and across the board the regime is despised and the image of the us has been destroyed.”

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